(1997) Information, Systems and Information Systems.John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

(1999) Soft Systems Methodology in Action. (1999)Â Systems Thinking, Systems Practice: includes a 30-year retrospective. It is not intended as a comprehensive source of information about SSM and may well subvert some of Checkland’s original intentions, in an attempt to make the subject accessible to students and other lifelong learners …. This website attempts to explain some of the elements of SSM for educational purposes. In this sense, SSM could be described as an approach to early system requirements analysis, rather than a systems design approach. SSM is an approach to the investigation of the problems that may or may not require computer-based system support as part of its solution. SSM provides a philosophy and a set of techniques for investigating a “real-world” problem situation. Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) was devised by Peter Checkland and elaborated in collaboration with Sue Holwell and Jim ScholesÂ (among others) at Lancaster University in the UK. SSM is helpful for analysis approaches that wish to understand the connections, conflicts, and discrepancies between elements of a situation rather than attempting to subsume all elements into a single perspective.

It is systemic, rather than systems-focused, calling upon the tradition of general systems theory (von Bertanlaffy, 1968) and inquiring systems (Churchman, 1971) in acknowledging the disparate elements of a situation. SSM is based upon a single concept: that we model systems of purposeful human activity (what people do), rather than data-management or IT components (the more usual focus of systems analysis). The analysis tools suggested by the method - which is really a family of methods, rather than a single method in the sense of modeling techniques - permit change-analysts, consultants and researchers to exercise reflexivity and to explore alternatives. It also provides an excellent approach to surfacing multiple perspectives in decision-making, complex problem-analysis, and socially-situated research. Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) provides a method for participatory design of human-centered information systems.

What is soft systems methodology